PowerWash Simulator News

Hey everyone!

Today we shine a light on recently added new game mechanics with our latest dev log! Before we brighten your day, we're talking today about content in Update 0.5 which landed last week! If you missed it, you can read the full patch notes here: https://steamcommunity.com/games/1290000/announcements/detail/2992066214554670810

Today, we're taking a look at the Carousel level and the new satisfying mechanics we've introduced.





The Carousel level in 0.5 has brought 3 completely new things to PowerWash Simulator with washable lights, moving dirt objects and music.

First lets talk about the emissive light system. Torger, one of the artists who worked on the new system had this to say:

Originally posted by Torger

Adding washable lights and glowing dirt opened up new opportunities for the types of maps we could create. Allowing us to bring scenes such as the Fun Fair to life in a much more visually appealing way and hopefully giving the players some new cleaning experiences.

We thought the contrast from dirty to clean was levelled up by this light and hope that you all have found uncovering this as a pleasant and satisfying surprise! There's definitely more we can do with cleanable lighting in the future...



Cleanable moving objects were also something we have wanted to do for a while and made perfect sense for a fairground ride level. Drive by spraying is now an option! It has actually been a pleasure hearing feedback on this and some of the interesting cleaning techniques.

We were however worried about players who may be prone to motion sickness and putting in a stop button came from internal feedback to combat this. It also adds the option for a player to have the ride moving or not. It may be someone just wants to stand still and clean the carousel floor as it moves and then to stop it whilst they do the details.



Note and spoilers, there is a slight challenge with this level, if you are stuck on the poles:

If you turn the carousel off and on again, the carousel moves revealing more of the pole from the top of the carousel

Some of the replays of this level have also been a joy to watch as it moves in the GIF!

Finally music is something that we originally planned to leave to players to choose in the background of their spray sessions. Whether that music be soothing lo-fi, thrashing heavy metal or even an insightful podcast, we've already seen many streamers and players talk about what their preference is to zen out to! The carousel music is our first toe in the water so to speak in seeing how music might be received in the game. In this instance it is very specific to the ride itself but maybe there will be more tracks in the future!

We'd love to hear your thoughts on all of the new mechanics. Would you like to see more lights to clean? More moving objects? More music? Let us know in the comments section below!



The Fountain is the winner for our latest community level vote! With 2257 votes it defeated the School Bus at 744 votes on our official Discord server. It also beat out in the tournament style both the Tractor and Dump Truck.



This means that we will be making by 1.0 the Mini Golf Course, Steam Locomotive and Fountain based on your suggestions/votes!

Whilst there's no current polls planned for community request maps right now, we'll have lots more exciting stuff happening on our Discord soon!

Join here: https://discord.com/invite/powerwashsimulator



We're aware of the issue some players have being stuck with 99% and an object that is definitely clean. We're currently working on a fix to get out ASAP. It does not affect any of the 0.5 new maps. Also it could be that there is still dirt on an object at 99%, you may just need to check with the highlight tool you have gotten everything.

Sorry to all those players affected!

[h3]Until Next Time...[/h3]

We've shone the light on many of the mover and shaker changes in 0.5 but what is coming with 0.6? Be sure to keep your eyes peeled here and on socials for teasers!

Keep up with everything PowerWash Simulator by following our channels:

Twitter: https://twitter.com/PowerWashSim
Twitch: https://www.twitch.tv/futurlab
TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@powerwashsim?
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/powerwashsim/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/powerwashsim

Hey everyone!

Welcome to Content Update 0.5 - I Know Wash You Did Last Summer! Discover new career jobs, completely new zones, cosmetics, rebindings, lore and much more!

Watch our surprisingly clean update trailer here:

[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]

Added four new jobs to Career Mode
The Mayor’s Mansion, Carousel, Drill and Temple!



[h2]More[/h2]

• Added Water and Time Challenges for Dirt Bike & Back Garden jobs
  
• Added glove styles
  
• Added skins for the Prime Vista 3000 Heavy Duty Washer
  
• Added Extra Long Extension for all washers (available in the shop once Fire Helicopter is complete)
  
• Key rebinding option available (more on this below)
  
• Music slider added to audio options
  
• Button labels added to the HUD
  
• Options menu rework
  

• Higher frame rates no longer have an impact on wash performance
  
• Improved stickiness on some surfaces
  
• Minor dirt improvements on Back Garden
  
• Audio improvements in the Treehouse
  
• App now runs even if not in focus to prevent UI screens getting stuck
  
• Exiting the feedback tool before the report has been sent no longer causes a freeze
  

A priority for this update was to add the option to rebind the controls as we’re aware that some people have been unable to play comfortably without this feature. This system brings with it many variables and while we believe we’ve covered all the critical areas to improve your experience, there is still some functionality we need to work on. While some keys & specific controls cannot be bound, you will also find that on-screen glyphs are not updating if you’ve customised your inputs.

Please bear with us while we continue to polish this feature, but for now we hope it will improve the experience of those most-seriously affected. If you encounter any issues, you should always be able to open the tablet and reset your bindings in the controls tab.

Our next step in improving accessibility is to add an FOV slider. It’s a much-requested feature and while it is high priority, we need to refactor the VFX and camera system before we can implement it. It’s a big change which is also needed for multiplayer, so work is underway! We will have it ready for a future update, but at this time we can’t say exactly when.

Many of you have reported certain problems with UI screens becoming stuck or overlapping. We’ve appreciated your reports and found that most of these issues stem from tabbing out of the game. Prior to this update, the game would have stopped running when not focused (unless you had enabled the “Run in Background” option) and this was causing certain screens to get stuck or overlap. We needed to remove this option for the upcoming multiplayer, so have taken this step now as it should also prevent most of these bugs from occurring.

We’ve added a couple of new sections to the shop in Career Mode, where you can now spend your hard-earned currency on cosmetic updates to gloves and the heavy duty washer. Once purchased, you can access these via the inventory in game. We’ll be adding more styles in the future and new ways to show them off, so stay tuned for more on that in the months ahead.

Finally, we’re continuing to work on improving friction and collision when clambering across rooftops and scaling ladders. We’ve addressed a few key areas in this update but will be continuing to review it throughout Early Access.

[h3]Known Issues[/h3]

• As we were finalising this update, we discovered that the power of washers is lower when using Legacy wash mode rather than Standard. This will prevent players who use this mode from attaining medals in the new Challenges we've added with update 0.5. If you can, please use the Standard wash mode while we work to address this. This decrease of power will be less noticeable in Career Mode and Free Play but where margins are razor thin for medals it is extremely difficult to achieve the medals as intended.
  
• For keys 'control', 'shift', and 'alt' they need to be held down for 3 seconds rather than pressed. All other keys should bind normally on a single key press.
  
• There's no glyph displaying on a prompt to pick up an object (scaffold/ladder/stool) or to push the button to turn on/off the Carousel when using a controller. The default button is down on the d-pad.
  

If you hit any other issues with this update please report them with F8 in-game which goes straight to the developers!

We hope that you enjoy the new content and please keep your feedback coming!

(Note this also counts as this weeks dev log, see you next week for the next installment!)

Keep up with everything PowerWash Simulator by following our channels:

Twitter: https://twitter.com/PowerWashSim
Twitch: https://www.twitch.tv/futurlab
TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@powerwashsim?
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/powerwashsim/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/powerwashsim

Hey everyone!

Get ready to dig in to this vehicular focused dev log! Before your head spins, in the last instalment we highlighted the Extra Long extension coming in 0.5! See more of that here: https://steamcommunity.com/games/1290000/announcements/detail/2992066214554670810

Today, we're revealing a new career job coming with the new patch!





Blake thrust has called you, the “Dirtfinder General” to clean their beloved drill “Holey Moley”. Are you up to the cleaning challenge?



The Drill presents lots of interesting geometric shapes to get in and around with jets of water. You can even spiral water onto a spiral with the turbo nozzle! We hope players will enjoy peeling back the dirt to reveal a shiny metal beauty below.



Designer Nick says to “pay attention to the dirt types on this level,” if you’re one of those lore theorists at least! No comment here!

The Drill is the smallest job coming in 0.5, there's 4 levels in total with the temple being teased in an earlier dev log: https://steamcommunity.com/games/1290000/announcements/detail/5693099555847603913

We’ll share more on the update release date as soon as we can though currently we’re squashing some last minute bugs. Watch this space! 😊





Our latest vote for a community requested level to be made in-game, is now live! Simply join our Discord and follow the instructions in the community-map-votes channel.

Discord here: https://discord.com/invite/powerwashsimulator

These options were taken from popular community suggestions and go head to head with each other in a knockout style poll.This time we have:

Tractor VS School Bus

&

Dump Truck VS Fountain

Who will you vote for in these two groups?


[h3]Until Next Time...[/h3]

We've dug deep with this dev log, what will we excavate and uncover next week? Be sure to keep your eyes peeled!

Keep up with everything PowerWash Simulator by following our channels:

Twitter: https://twitter.com/PowerWashSim
Twitch: https://www.twitch.tv/futurlab
TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@powerwashsim?
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/powerwashsim/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/powerwashsim

Hey everyone!

Welcome to our extra long developer log, not lengthy in text form but in the addition coming to the game! In the last instalment we highlighted one of the new career jobs coming in 0.5, the Temple! See more of that here: https://steamcommunity.com/games/1290000/announcements/detail/5693099555847603913

Today, we're revealing a new extra lengthy attachment and more!





Have you ever used the long extension to only then wish it was longer? Well - good news! The Extra Long Extension is here to service all of your long distance cleaning needs!



Become the spray sniper of your dreams with this new lance-like attachment.

We initially added extensions to give players more versatility in approaching elevated areas for cleaning and how far away they wanted to be from surfaces. Since launch though, we've definitely seen several creative approaches to cleaning including parkour. Overall we do want to make sure that players are more aware of the extensions so hope this addition will help.

In 0.5, there's also a new job which will require and supply you with this attachment though, we aren't ready to tease this just yet as it's full of juicy lore. We're excited to see people tackle this level as it plays quite differently from other levels in the game. Let us know your spiciest speculations on what it is in the replies below!

Here's the attachment for all the washers:



What do you think about becoming a power wash sniper?



Help us shape the jobs in the game and future levels. We'd love to hear your thoughts on all of the career jobs you have completed so far. This short survey opens up a rating 1-10 for each level. If you have a moment to complete this it would be greatly appreciated!

Take part here!

Thanks for all of your feedback in general so far that have helped us make the game better!

We'd also like to note that we will be running the community map vote next week, we are just 100% pinning down the final jobs to vote on. Sorry that it's slightly delayed!

[h3]Until Next Time...[/h3]

That's the long of it over with, we'll have some more exciting spoilers next week! Keep an eye on our socials too as we turn up the heat!

Keep up with everything PowerWash Simulator by following our channels:

Twitter: https://twitter.com/PowerWashSim
Twitch: https://www.twitch.tv/futurlab
TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@powerwashsim?
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/powerwashsim/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/powerwashsim

Hey everyone!

Welcome to our latest weekly developer log! In the last episode we covered the new challenges and the reopening of the community level suggestion thread! You can read this here: https://steamcommunity.com/games/1290000/announcements/detail/3002198116265530317

Today, we're revealing one of the new career jobs coming in 0.5, the Temple!



This is one of four career levels coming in the next update. It has a mix of intricate detailing and larger surface areas to clean. There's also some verticality to this level and from the heights you will see a rather different environment than we've visited before.







Here's some insights into the inspirations for The Temple from Torger who worked on the art for the level:

Originally posted by Torger

The first reference was Norwegian Stave Churches which were the original churches built by the Norse. We wanted to avoid religious stuff, so it was run through a blender of fantasy concept art with norse, dwarven and celtic styling.

Rough early concept art

Muckingham and PowerWash Simulator is set in a fictional land, so it makes sense that it doesn't exactly fit in to any particular real world area. ( For example the people speak UK English yet the houses look distinctly North American! Don't get us started on those gnomes...)

More from Torger:

Originally posted by Torger

The scene overall was a nice opportunity to break away from the green town environments that the player has mostly seen this far. We thought it would be a good idea to start rewarding players that have progressed this far into the story with fresh visuals.

We hope people will enjoy the mountainous vistas surrounding this level as they zen out to clean!

Here's some of the different materials you can uncover under the dirt which give that real contrasting satisfaction whilst cleaning:



We've also made improvements to player model colliders and slope control in general, sliding should be a thing of a past. On this level feel like you are gripping to the roof with spiked shoes! Hopefully this will be well received by our parkour players!

We're keen for people to try out the new levels and to jump into this unique environment!



A very early version of a wiki for the game has been opened, with some art/general information added by us but much more already filled out by community members. If you want to take a look or would like to help contribute you can do so here!





We've been running a community suggested map poll, where you decide which levels you want us to create from several of your suggestions. So far the winners are a mini golf course and steam locomotive!

Suggestions for our next community map vote are still open but we'll be beginning the vote 3 next week, so it's your last chance to add your idea: https://steamcommunity.com/app/1290000/discussions/1/3112530528183413533/

(Please note, the next community vote is for a large vehicle or similar sized level to the fire helicopter.)

The votes take place on our Discord, you can join now ahead of the next vote for more info and the past scores:
https://discord.gg/powerwashsimulator



That's all for this time, be sure to return next week for more teasers on update 0.5 coming soon.

Keep up with everything PowerWash Simulator by following our channels:

Twitter: https://twitter.com/PowerWashSim
Twitch: https://www.twitch.tv/futurlab
TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@powerwashsim?
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/powerwashsim/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/powerwashsim